Rebeca values Essex helping students develop full potential

Rebeca Nader López looks back on her time as a Women of the Future scholar as one of the best experiences of her life.

“I learned lots of things, both academically and personally. Essex is a university that grants every student a wide opportunity to develop up to our best potential,” she said.

Rebeca, from Mexico, was one of 30 women on the scholarship scheme, created to support intelligent and inspiring women from around the world and equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to empower them to become leaders and drivers of change.

“I would encourage every person to seek such an exceptional and valuable experience as the one that I had due to the Women of the Future scholarship scheme,” she explained. “With all of the knowledge I acquired, I want to embrace the moral and ethical responsibility that I have now of contributing to society as a professional passionate human rights lawyer.”

With reported problems of gender violence and sexual torture in Mexico, Rebeca applied for the scholarship so she could arm herself with the knowledge to fight for justice and equality in her home country.

Rebeca, who is studying LLM in International Human Rights Law, said her degree will help her contribute to her country’s development.

She said: “I consider myself an independent woman with a lot of potential to develop and this scholarship has been the perfect opportunity to continue building myself and my personality in an academic environment. In a country like Mexico, where culture is permeated with discrimination against women, I want to be an example of success for every woman with a dream like mine.”

Prior to arriving at Essex, Rebeca met a number of people who had also studied the same programme. “It strengthens people´s perception of human rights consolidating it to a more critical and informed one. I found the university to be widely unbiased; it offers an expanded variety of information for the students to enhance their own thoughts and criteria, and more importantly, how to communicate it under a structured and logic argument.

“Studying in an international environment, surrounded with people from all over the world, was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. Listening to several and varied approaches to addressing complexities in different countries, definitely boosted my perception in a way I could not even imagine before.

“Overall, I would describe my experience at Essex as a life-changing and unforgettable one.”

Read about our other Women of the Future Scholars Marina Lucic, Annalivia Polselli and Raíza Ponticelli.